A. S. Byatt Quotes

You would not exist if you did not have something to bring to the table of life.

When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.

We want to help everyone find meaning in their life and help translate the story that each person actually matters in the world.

I've always had a sense that I am doing something very important, something vital.

I'm interested in form, in the shape of things. And in commitment to the degree of never letting go the quest for the meaning of things. That can come off as beauty and style, but that's not where I start from.

At the end of the day, most people just want to be valued. They want to feel they have put their time to something that will seem to have been of value when they die.

A good poem is a contribution to reality.

Action can give us the feeling of being useful, but only words can give us a sense of weight and purpose.

Art is such an important part of our culture.

A part of me looks at life from a dismal perspective, not unlike Woody Allen and Larry David. But I don't want to look at life like that. It's bad enough that I have to think it. What works for me is writing against that view. There is God, there is love, there is greatness, there is a plan, and there is beauty.

I like everything I do to have some kind of meaning.

It's hard to make something feel like it needs to exist.

The value of identity of course is that so often with it comes purpose.

There are but two things worth living for: to do what is worthy of being written; and to write what is worthy of being read.

I want my voice to have purpose.

What is my life if I am no longer useful to others.

Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos.

The worse thing in the world is for an individual to live, breath and exist and leave this earth, die, and not make impact.

I think the word 'freedom' is beautiful, not so much in its phonics, but just in the power of the word itself.

Some people like to paint trees. I like to paint love. I find it more meaningful than painting trees.

My fear was not of death itself, but a death without meaning.

All of us want to have meaning in our lives and want to feel like we're doing something that makes a difference. I believe we're doing that in the Justice Department.

There is nothing insignificant in the world. It all depends on the point of view.

Things don't have to change the world to be important.

People want things with meaning. I know that because I want that.